A Forum for Orthodox Jewish thought on Halacha, Hashkafa, and the social issues of our time.

Monday, July 09, 2012

Is Jewish Education in Danger? Follow the Money

How Ironic. There are two simultaneous crises taking place in the world of Jewish education.

The Conservative Movement is now struggling with what it
calls its “Crown Jewel” – The Solomon Schechter Schools. Their enrollment
nationwide is dwindling. Some schools have closed. Others have merged with
community (non denominational) religious schools or Reform schools. The bottom
line with them is that the dwindling enrollment in these schools reflects the
dwindling membership in their entire movement. The Conservative movement
realized decades ago that their future was at stake without providing an avenue
for their youth to be Jewishly educated. They saw the growth of Orthodoxy (to
their surprise) and correctly deduced that it was largely due to the intensive religious
education we give our children.

Orthodoxy has an almost opposite problem. Our schools are
growing by leaps and bounds. The crisis
is in their cost. As I have pointed out many times in the past and as has
recently been pointed out by Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein in a recent Cross Currents article, the cost of Jewishly educating one’s child has skyrocketed to
the point where people making what most would consider an upper middle class
income are struggling to meet their tuition obligations. A family with 4 or 5
children whose income is in the 6 figure range must now often ask for partial
scholarships. And they are granted!

An analysis of these two crises is - I think - very
revealing. The reactions of the parent
bodies of both schools are very different. Most Conservative Jews don’t on
average have enough commitment to Judaism to justify their high tuition costs. They do
not see it in the same way Orthodox parents do.

We see it as a necessity. Without which many of our children
would be influenced to go off the Derech. Without a basic Jewish education the
effect the non Jewish atmosphere is certainly conducive to that. So most of us
just tighten our belts and pay the price. Conservative Jews on the other hand see
tuition as high as $37,000 plus per child - just say they can’t afford it. And
send their kids to public school. They hope that their children will somehow
retain a Jewish identity in spite of that. But it is for the most part wishful
thinking as attrition and intermarriage rates continue to climb. The lack of
any formal Jewish education or environment will take its toll.

I consider the impending failure of the Solomon Schechter Schools not just a crisis for them, but a crisis for all of us. Even with its theological problems its controversial
(to say the least) interpretation of Halacha - losing the Solomon Schechter Schools with the attendant assimilation and increase in intermarriage is not
anything to celebrate. And it is certainly no reason for any kind of Orthodox triumphalism.
We have our own problems. Not the least of which is our growing tuition crisis.

How do we solve these 2 crises? If I knew the answer to that, I would be the
most honored person in all of Jewry. But having been involved in the fundraising
side of Jewish education for many years, I have a couple of suggestions worthy
of consideration. Perhaps we can make “lemonade”
out of the “lemon” that is the Solomon Schechter crisis.

Long ago when tuitions started going up to the point where were
starting to be concerned about it, someone
had an idea of a Jewish tax: A Kehilla (community) “tax” pretty much along
the same lines public school taxes are charged to every citizen – even those
without children in the system. An educated
public benefits everyone. That is certainly true for the Jewish people.

How do we start such a fund? I would suggest that the
infrastructure is already in place. Every major Jewish population center in the
United States has a Jewish Federation whose purpose it is to raise funds for
Jewish causes. Funds are collected from the entire Jewish community – Jews of
every denomination.

In the past the number one Federation priority was Israel. That is of course still very important. But
it is not their only project. Their philanthropic pie is sliced many ways. Some
of that money is given to Jewish education. But many would argue – correctly in
my view – that as important as virtually all of their programs are, Jewish
education has never been a high priority. Which it should be (after helping the truly indigent).

Jewish Federations - comprised of many members of the
Conservative movement - now realize that Jewish education is indeed important. This
is certainly what their own Conservative rabbinate has been telling them. In
recent years allocations to religious schools of all denominations have
increased because of that.

But “Crown Jewel” or no, their schools are either shrinking
or disappearing entirely. As intermarriage and attrition continues to increase
- the realization that education is essential to Jewish survival has not been
abandoned.

I am told by Conservative rabbis and their people in
outreach that they consider it a success when one of their constituents who
they have successfully gotten interested in Judaism – becomes Orthodox.

Bearing all of this in mind, I don’t think it would be all
that difficult to convince members of a Federation who see the alarming rates
of intermarriage to allocate more of their money to education – even though now
more of it would go to Orthodox schools. There would be resistance by some. But
I think there would be an equal amount of support by others.

It’s just a question of priorities. Jewish Federations are
good at fund raising. And they are good at promoting their causes. What better selling point can there be then
stemming the rising tide of assimilating out – and intermarriage?

Some Federations have actually increased their allocations
to the schools. The paradigm for this is Chicago. But even here in Chicago, I truly believe
that a reprioritization needs to take place. As important as Israel is, our
survival as a people depends on Jewish education.

Another area that perhaps can be more effectively used for
funding education is the philanthropy of our own wealthy Orthodox Jews. They of
course already give very generously to their city’s schools. But they are equally
generous to schools outside of their own city. Perhaps even more generous.

I understand the desire of philanthropists to spread their wealth
and their desire to be associated with the great Yeshivos of the world. Like
Lakewood and the Mir. It is nice to have those schools on their philanthropic
resumes. But in my view they too need to reprioritize. As generous as they already
are to the in-town schools (and they are very generous), I believe that they need
to give even more. Even if it means giving less to the out-of-town schools.

The tuition crisis is not going away. It is only getting
worse. We all want a quality education for our children. Better teachers. More programs.
Better administrators. Demands keep going up. And so do expenses. How do we pay
for it all if virtually every parent - even relatively well to do parents are already
being squeezed for every extra dollar they have and most schools are already at
their fund raising limits?!

As Rabbi Adlerstein implies - must we have smaller families
to stay viable? Is his point about the animosity towards Klei Kodesh with large
families and low incomes valid? (…that partly because of them tuitions that
squeeze every dime out of even an upper middle income parent are skyrocketing?)

The cost of Jewish education is spiraling out of control. Something
has to be done. I don’t know if my suggestions will increase revenue at all - let
alone cover the shortfall at which many schools operate every year. But something has got to give. If we don’t
increase outside revenue and tuitions keep rising - the entire house of cards
will fall.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.